Catan Junior

European-style board games have been quickly surging in American popularity and availability for about three or four years now. I remember being tickled to find Carcassonne at a Barnes and Noble for the first time, though it was strange to see the board games placed in a completely different section of the store from the role playing game source books, which sat right next to science fiction and fantasy titles. Still, book stores were relatively quick to realize that people who enjoy buying a physical, hard cover book are likely to be the same people that enjoy the tactile, social experience that only board games can provide.

Big box retailers have been somewhat less adaptive to these customers’ tastes. It has been a long road for Eurogames publishers to get their titles stocked in the Walmarts of the world; in fact it was only just this last year that I first saw Settlers of Catan on sale at my local Target. I can remember an instance, during my holiday shopping, where a little boy in such a store picked Catan up and walked it over to his parents. They all looked a bit puzzled by the description on the box and eventually put it back.

This secondhand, anecdotal experience highlights the fact that, while Settlers has sold around 30 million copies to date worldwide, it is still a new game to most Americans. Part of getting the country at large more invested in the franchise is name recognition, and that starts with the very youngest consumers. And so, just this last April, Mayfair Games brought a child-focused version of Catan, named Catan Junior, to the US. They were kind enough to send me a copy, and some friends were kind enough to loan me their children to test it out.

Trading Sheep For Goats

The original Settlers of Catan is renowned as a subtle, complex game of physical and social positioning. You must read your opponent like a poker player to be successful. Their tells, however, are less about what’s in their hand and more about what they place on the board. A road here, a town there, and you can begin to see where you are going to bump heads as you expand your stake on the island. Build up a close relationship with someone across the table and they may let you pass unmolested. Deny them the resources they need to advance and they can easily box you in. Counting cards is not only possible, it’s almost required to make good decisions about what to trade and what not to trade to your opponents. While you are smiling and freshening drinks, you need to keep the high-level strategizing going in your head; you must memorize and theorize while you socialize.

Catan Junior changes this equation fundamentally, using cardboard tiles that everyone at the table can see at a glance instead of cards held close to the chest. This takes a lot of the rote memorization out of the game, and also makes the table more appealing to young eyes. It’s a lot more exciting to know that your sister has a huge pile of resources just sitting there than it is to try and remember what all the cards are in the massive hand she’s accumulated.

This iteration of Catan plays two to four players aged six and up. The goal of the game is to be the first to place all seven of your pirate hideouts on the board. Setup is relatively easy, since Catan Junior does away with the original game's interlocking tiles in favor of a static board composed of 13 individual hexagonal islands, arranged on a traditional fold-out piece of cardboard. Colored circles tell players where their two starting hideouts will go. Players additionally get one pirate ship with which to start their voyage, because sea lanes take the place of roads in this version of the game.

Following standard Catan idioms, each island has a resource which it produces for nearby players at the roll of a die. Roll a two and players whose hideouts touch the appropriate islands will see goats and molasses entering their personal economy, while a three will yield both wood and gold. Cutlasses round out the game's selection of resources and give the game a properly piratical edge.

A pretty simple conversion, I thought: trade random tiles for a fixed board, swap out sheep for goats, and you’ve cranked out a dumbed-down version of Catan that only a child could love. Little did I know how invested I and the other adults playing would also get in this little 30 minute game.

A Yes and No Answer

You can play an entire game of Scrabble and not utter a single word to your playing partner. Yahtzee could be played solitaire and no one would be the wiser (several might actually be happier, in fact). But in order to excel at Catan, you have to be a champion raconteur. You have to reason with your opponents, get them to see things your way sometimes in order to gain the upper hand. Nothing significant really happens in Catan games unless players want it to happen, and other people wanting things to happen in your favor (whether they know it or not) is the key to being a very good player.

Anyone who has had a two-year old will know how much children of a certain age enjoy saying "no". Owen, my six-year old play tester, delighted in repeatedly telling his father, Jeff, that he would under no circumstances trade away any gold whatsoever. At the same time, his sister, seven-and-a-half year old Teagan, was coaxing Owen into relinquishing two of his three cutlasses.

"If I can have your two cutlasses for this molasses I can build two more hideouts," she explained. Owen looked a bit perplexed as to why he would want to help his sister do anything, let along build more hideouts.

"Remember, Teagan," their father chimed in, his salesman flag flying high, "to always tell people what’s in it for them when you really want something from them." Always be closing, sweetheart, always be closing.

Meanwhile, eight-year-old neighbor-friend William was quietly breaking ground on his fifth pirate hideout. This broke up the clinic being conducted on value-added selling for a moment as the other three players eyed him and his pile of resources suspiciously. That next round, William rolled a six. I stopped play to point out the moment of drama.

"The Ghost Pirate is moving from Spooky Island! William, where do you want to place him?" William put him squarely inside his competition’s sphere of influence, halting the flow of gold into the game for everyone but himself, and taking two extra gold for his troubles. Until another six was rolled, I pointed out, William would be the only one receiving any gold. In addition, he would get to place his sixth hideout on Spooky Island. He was one hideout away from winning. A small hush fell over the table while everyone considered the implications. No hideouts could be built by anyone but William… no wild cards (called Cocoa Cards here) could save anyone… only ships could be built with the resources currently in play.

It was at this point that Owen came to the realization that he had accidentally cornered the market on wood. His stockpile was enormous, and only three additional wood remained in the marketplace for all the other players to compete for. Owen was suddenly a very popular person, the youngest lumber magnate in northern Illinois. Owen and William both began to haggle mercilessly with Teagan and Jeff.

The kids simply lit up over the game. I talked a bit with Jeff after the game was over about how he felt the kids took to the game. "I enjoyed it. It allowed me a lot of opportunities to get them to start to think about (consequences). I think continued play will reinforce the next level thinking."

Many games relish the opportunity to tell players what not to do. The manual that accompanies Catan Junior, on the other hand, takes the form of a mildly annotated play through that carefully tells players only what they can do. This opens the door for improvisation and higher level thinking, fueling strategies that can and must be developed on the fly to adapt to any given game situation. The opportunity to have these kinds of experiences with a child, to elicit emergent bursts of creativity, is a wonderful one for both parent and child alike.

In the end, this game is not the hack job I was expecting. It would have been easy for Mayfair to slap a Catan skin on a more traditional American board game, cashing in on the brand’s popularity with core gamers to expand their license to a family market happy enough to roll dice and pluck cards that tell them what to do. Instead, the company has kept what makes the Catan series a unique experience while removing some of the barriers that can prevent young players from getting fully invested in the experience.

What you get:

Four sets of injection molded plastic pieces. They’re light and hollow, but detailed. I doubt that the ships would win in a battle against a cat or an adult’s bare feet, but the pirate hideouts look robust enough. Each color has its own permanent starting location on the board, so take care in choosing your corner of the world.

The Ghost Pirate, in muted gray.

A set of Cocoa Cards, which for a price will randomly allow you to move the Ghost Pirate around, gather oodles of resources you might not otherwise have access to, or immediately drop a ship or hideout into play without paying for it!

Large, friendly, kid-sized resource tiles. The two-inch square tiles are printed on thick stock, making them likely to hold up for many play sessions.

Four quick-reference tiles that show what resources are required to build a hideout, a ship, or acquire a Cocoa Card. Like all the tokens in this game, they’re on the same extra thick card stock.

Basic and advanced rules. The basic rules are perfect for a table of only younger children, and are unique to the American version. Here you use an attached side-board to trade not with each other but with an island-themed marketplace. Resources found there are cheaper than those imported from the mainland, but fluctuate based on what people are trading in for them. The game starts with one of each resource available for trade, but can quickly become a dumping ground for only molasses or goats depending on market forces. (The review above outlines the advanced rules only.)

The Good:

A strong design that allows for emergent, improvisational strategies without being overwhelmingly complicated for young players.

A single game board, instead of the piles of hexagonal tiles other Catan variants are known for, means a stable playing surface.

Kid-friendly cardboard tokens mean that, barring any large liquid spills, the game will live to play another day.

A tough box, with reinforced corners and a sturdy cover, mean this edition will store and travel well.

The Bad:

The game is not compatible with the various existing Catan versions and expansions available from Mayfair. If you want to level-up your play you’ll need to put Catan Junior aside and move up to the full version of the game. But then again, that’s kind of the point isn’t it?

Wooden pieces would have upped the price of the game, I imagine, but if we’re going to play a board game then let’s do it right.

The Ugly:

The two deep furrows inside the plastic liner hold everything snugly, but don’t even make an attempt at organization. Every board game manufacturer should be constitutionally mandated to include plastic baggies or some other sorting mechanism in the inner box. Rant over.

No extra pieces are provided, so take careful inventory before you pack up.

If you step on one of these plastic pieces, your feet are going to get messed up in ways I can’t even imagine.

I think board games have been enjoying a bit of a renaissance lately in North America. I know people in their 30's getting together for drinks & playing Monopoly, some guys at my office are into Settlers Of Catan, and I play Stratego with an old friend from College.

This sounds interesting, and I'm glad they're making games for kids that aren't totally dumb.

Two personal anecdotes about Settlers:1. I've never played it while sober. I do the opposite of what a good Settlers player should do.

2. This weekend, we went on a camping trip and decided to, instead of bringing a Settlers board, re-draw everything onto sheets of paper and cut out hexagonalish pieces. Everything was recreated perfectly, and fit into small Ziploc bags. Unfortunately, the hexagons didn't match up, and even a slight breeze (or the breath of a laughing human!) could blow the board apart.

Fixed the your/you're error, and after looking agreed that the tiles did not have an extra couple of secret sides and should indeed be referred to an hexagons.

I also popped a little info box along with a buy link (yes, we have an Amazon affiliate code and see a small % if you buy through that link) because it seems like that sort of thing is helpful. If anyone has feedback on that kind of thing lemme know.

Very interesting. Didn't know this one was available and I'm already pushing Euro gaming on my kids.

Kid Carcassonne is excellent as well and also fun for adults to play in short bursts -- and that's what each game is. Sounds like it aims a bit younger than this one, but the designers did not rigidly stick to the rules of Carcassonne proper and with very good results in my estimation. My daughter picked up on the strategies when she was 5, I think.

Using the family rules for Agricola is also very playable by kids with the fun themes of managing a farm and watching your plants grow and building your home and filling stables full of animals -- and cooking them. Younger kids will need some guidance. I actually prefer that version when I don't have have time for all the intricacies of the "regular" rules which are cool buy very involved. (Oh and if you're a crafty family you'll pimp this thing out with custom pieces.) There is a non-combative solitaire feel to this game even though it is fiercely competitive to the core.

Dominion is also an easy start for younger players and with a little guidance they can start playing amongst themselves especially if they are competitive.

4 great intros to Euro games for any age. So glad this article popped up.

Im playing Catan on my Xbox 360 now. Great game. I also have Carcassonne on the 360. Stratego is one of my favorite board games. We used to double up 2 boards side by side for an epic battle. My friend used to cheat me by putting marks on the back but I still beat him!

Catan on the 360 has been out for years and I still find it easy to pickup a game whenever I want to play. It's a very good rendition of the game. IIRC, Big Huge Games did that title and didn't they just die in the 38 Studios fire. It's a shame if that's what happened because Settlers would sell well with an update.

It's aimed at six-year-olds, not infants. My wife teaches kindergarten and they have all sorts of little "manipulatives" for counting activities and whatnot that are smaller than anything I see on that table.

Looks like fun. I'm tempted to get it for my nieces although they're scraping the upper end of that age range. I love to game, and they love to game, but it's very hard to find games they can follow and want to play that don't bore me to tears. Anyone experienced the Littlest Pet Shop board game?

Two personal anecdotes about Settlers:1. I've never played it while sober. I do the opposite of what a good Settlers player should do.

Actually, we used to play it as a drinking game. When someone rolled the 7, we added the rule, that the player could choose to make everyone besides him drink (usually a shot). This made for some interesting strategic decision making: short sighted benefits of robbing/blocking your opponents to a long term benefits from drunk opponents.

From my European perspective, it's funny to see Euro style board games slowly make their way into the American market much like they got out of germany and to the rest of Europe about 10 years ago.

Personnaly, I've never been a big fan of Catan, but if you're looking for a great game that's playable by children I would recommend "7 Wonders". I've played the game last week end with a few friends in their 30s and one 7 year old child and the whole game played smoothly and was interesting for everyone.

My girls are 4 and 6 1/2, not too much longer. I know my 4 year old would lose interest reasonbly fast. When we play D&D she shows up if dice are to be rolled, but after she's had her roll she runs off again. Both of them tend to roll pretty well for us tho heh.

iPad>I do need to check those games out on the iPad. My wife and I both have iPhones if they connect up to keep your cards hidden from others. Really want more than 2 people for games like that tho

My kid is almost 5, but is more mature than other kids his age, and his reading ability is also very high. Would this be considered a good starter game?

He likes Candyland, but he's bored with playing the "normal" way and we've had to come up with some house rules that keep the game interesting enough for him to actually finish. Chutes and Ladders is likewise boring as hell, and I think I've only managed to finish a handful of games with him.

I would say yes. The marketplace mechanic, as well as an even smaller map on the reverse of the board that I neglected to mention, mean that you should be able to walk them through the game pretty easily. The way you describe your almost 5 year old I think it would be a good fit.

My kid is almost 5, but is more mature than other kids his age, and his reading ability is also very high. Would this be considered a good starter game?

He likes Candyland, but he's bored with playing the "normal" way and we've had to come up with some house rules that keep the game interesting enough for him to actually finish. Chutes and Ladders is likewise boring as hell, and I think I've only managed to finish a handful of games with him.

Kids of Carcassonne is pretty good, also. It's a super-simple version of the game, but there are a couple of strategic elements so there are a few decisions to be made while playing.

My favorite is Zooloretto. There's a little more strategy and decision making involved, and the kids love the theme (building a zoo).

I don't really think the "Adult" Settlers of Catan is really that much more complex. I understand what the author is saying about visibly being able to see what's in another person's hand vs card counting, but you can just play with an open hand house rule to get around that.

IMHO, the original Settlers is an awesome game, simple enough for kids to learn, and already flexible enough for kids to learn how to play well.

Using the family rules for Agricola is also very playable by kids with the fun themes of managing a farm and watching your plants grow and building your home and filling stables full of animals -- and cooking them.

They really shouldn't have called it the "Family Version"; more like the drive your SO crazy version or something. The cards break the game up and add a luck factor. The "Family Version" is basically chess where you can manage to make your opponent's family starve. It's a "prefect information" game or whatever - no luck and no hidden information. I find those really tense myself. It's definitely not a simple version of the game.

It seems pretty complicated for kids, and I'd imagine some getting pretty annoyed when a sibling grabs the sheep they needed to meet the food requirement and just lets them "run away". But I wouldn't know, since I don't have kids :-)

We've got a ton of games, but almost none out kid can play. Mostly us adults sitting at a table drinking playing a good game. Settlers, Dominion, Game of Thrones (both the strategy game and the living card game), Thunderstone, Small World, we have not gotten into carcassonne yet but it;s on the list. Recently found out about ticket to ride and plan to buy ASAP as well.

My kid is almost 5, but is more mature than other kids his age, and his reading ability is also very high. Would this be considered a good starter game?

He likes Candyland, but he's bored with playing the "normal" way and we've had to come up with some house rules that keep the game interesting enough for him to actually finish. Chutes and Ladders is likewise boring as hell, and I think I've only managed to finish a handful of games with him.

Kids of Carcassonne is pretty good, also. It's a super-simple version of the game, but there are a couple of strategic elements so there are a few decisions to be made while playing.

My favorite is Zooloretto. There's a little more strategy and decision making involved, and the kids love the theme (building a zoo).

Aw. You beat me to it. I would love to see a review of The Kids of Carcassonne. It's always seemed like a pretty great extension of the abstract things kids are taught at that age, while adding some strategy to the mix. I love Carcassonne, so helping children embrace it would be quite welcome.

Since you mentioned The Kids of Carcassonne, I feel compelled to check out Zooloretto now. Sounds great!

Using the family rules for Agricola is also very playable by kids with the fun themes of managing a farm and watching your plants grow and building your home and filling stables full of animals -- and cooking them.

They really shouldn't have called it the "Family Version"; more like the drive your SO crazy version or something. The cards break the game up and add a luck factor. The "Family Version" is basically chess where you can manage to make your opponent's family starve. It's a "prefect information" game or whatever - no luck and no hidden information. I find those really tense myself. It's definitely not a simple version of the game.

I second that. The "Family Version" is tighter and meaner than the standard version when playing with any serious gamers. Since there are no cards to nudge players towards alternate strategies, the game becomes a dog fight for scarce resources. However, it may well be a good choice for younger players, who aren't as likely to attempt to monopolize the wood or other critical spots.

We've got a ton of games, but almost none out kid can play. Mostly us adults sitting at a table drinking playing a good game. Settlers, Dominion, Game of Thrones (both the strategy game and the living card game), Thunderstone, Small World, we have not gotten into carcassonne yet but it;s on the list. Recently found out about ticket to ride and plan to buy ASAP as well.

I might also suggest Tales of the Arabian Nights. As you move around the board, characters encounter stories and they must decide what they want to do. The brilliant part from a family stand point is that, just like in real life, you can make educated decisions based on what skills you've gained over the course of the game, you can't be sure of the outcome. You may have weapon use, but attacking may not always be the best idea. You can make the best guesses and those who do will do better, but there is a self-balancing that goes on that allows a child to perform just as well as an adult. A child can understand "oh hey, I'm a hideous cursed beast man right now, maybe I shouldn't talk to the this guy" just as well as an adult :-).

All of this said... if your kid can't handle things going the way he expects, then it is not a good pickup. For the same reason it balances adults, things can go wildly different than you expect, and all the players need to be mature enough to handle that.

Lastly, the mention of 7 wonders is a good one. You can watch a playthrough (VERY entertaining) on the youtube channel "watchitplayed". I highly recommend their show if you have even a passing interest in card/board/miniatures. And he does play with his kids, and they are an integral part of the show.

Why do articles about boardgames, if you're just covering the most mundane and the most commercial products. Like a tech-blog suddenly writing an article about the latest Britney Spears record. At least dip outside the most obvious waters when venturing so far away from tech-topics.

Why do articles about boardgames, if you're just covering the most mundane and the most commercial products. Like a tech-blog suddenly writing an article about the latest Britney Spears record. At least dip outside the most obvious waters when venturing so far away from tech-topics.

Because this is about a game for children. Obviously it's much too banal for you but for those who have kids and have not yet discovered Euro board games, this is a great article. Don't be an ass just because you're obviously too hip for Catan games. Or don't read the article. Your choice.

I think board games have been enjoying a bit of a renaissance lately in North America. I know people in their 30's getting together for drinks & playing Monopoly, some guys at my office are into Settlers Of Catan, and I play Stratego with an old friend from College.

From my European perspective, it's funny to see Euro style board games slowly make their way into the American market much like they got out of germany and to the rest of Europe about 10 years ago.

Personnaly, I've never been a big fan of Catan, but if you're looking for a great game that's playable by children I would recommend "7 Wonders". I've played the game last week end with a few friends in their 30s and one 7 year old child and the whole game played smoothly and was interesting for everyone.

My wife and I still have yet to have the patience to read through all the instructions for Settlers of Catan, and we've had it for the better part of a year now. She practically has ADD and loses interest after reading a page, and my eyes start glossing over and keep reading the same section over and over again. By that point, she's walked away, and I give up trying to play the game. It doesn't help that we never have a third of fourth person over to play with us, and the game requires 3 or 4 people. I hate to say it, but this junior version of the game actually might be better for us! (Or at least act as a gateway to finally playing the full game...)

Using the family rules for Agricola is also very playable by kids with the fun themes of managing a farm and watching your plants grow and building your home and filling stables full of animals -- and cooking them.

They really shouldn't have called it the "Family Version"; more like the drive your SO crazy version or something. The cards break the game up and add a luck factor. The "Family Version" is basically chess where you can manage to make your opponent's family starve. It's a "prefect information" game or whatever - no luck and no hidden information. I find those really tense myself. It's definitely not a simple version of the game.

It seems pretty complicated for kids, and I'd imagine some getting pretty annoyed when a sibling grabs the sheep they needed to meet the food requirement and just lets them "run away". But I wouldn't know, since I don't have kids :-)

Well, there is much less reading and complication when you take out Occupations and Minor Improvements. Those tend to slow down the game immensely (but also offer some amazing smack-down combinations when played right). I agree that it really isn't making the game EASIER just simpler to understand. I didn't say the kids would win. The theme is enjoyable and there are plenty of chances to be the one with the resource someone else needs. One key is to let them know how important it is to try and get first player or help the player to their right get it.